If Curt Phillips wasn’t the feel-good story of 2012 in college football, America needed to pay better attention. Guy comes back from not one, not two, but three ACL tears in his right knee to quarterback his team in the Rose Bowl—are you kidding? Hollywood better be making a movie about this heroic dude.

We don’t yet know the story’s ending, though. Maybe Phillips, who didn’t start until the 10th game of the season, will lead Wisconsin back to Pasadena and do what the past three Badgers teams were unable to do—win the game. This would, of course, be an ending worth waiting for.

But the real outcome might not be so joyous, or even pleasant at all, for the 22-year-old graduate student in educational administration, who was given a sixth year of eligibility by the NCAA.

Just because Phillips started the Rose Bowl—and the 70-31 destruction of Nebraska in the Big Ten title game—doesn’t mean he’ll be first string when Wisconsin plays next.

He might not even be second string. And that’s assuming his knee doesn’t fail him again this offseason, as it did twice in 2010 and again in 2011.

If that sounds cold and unsentimental, sorry, but it only matches Phillips’ reality in 2013.

“I’m definitely not planning on that happening. It hasn’t even crossed my mind,” Phillips told Sporting News of the possibility he’ll be back on the bench in the fall.

“I definitely wouldn’t be OK with it.”

That’s the sort of determination we imagine a man needs to not only persevere through three knee rehabilitations but stay relevant as a player in a top program. But that alone won’t get Phillips on the field—not with a new coaching staff in Madison.

Bret Bielema and his staff always admired Phillips’ resolve, but they didn’t believe in him as much as a quarterback; he didn’t get his shot last season until Danny O’Brien had failed and Joel Stave had been injured. By the time the Rose Bowl rolled around, though, the entire team was rallying around Phillips’ leadership. At the team’s postseason banquet, the other Badgers cheered loudly as Phillips received a coaches’ appreciation award. He might’ve had a pretty good line on the starting job for 2013 if Bielema were still around.

Instead, with Gary Andersen and new offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig on board, Phillips is just another competitor in the most crowded quarterback race in college football.

Stave, a former walk-on, went 4-2 as a redshirt freshman starter before breaking his collarbone. O’Brien—once such a promising freshman at Maryland—has another year to go. Bart Houston, the star of Wisconsin’s 2012 recruiting class, will peel off his redshirt and take a run at the job. Also back on board is Jon Budmayr, who has had serious arm troubles but once warmed the top spot on the depth chart until Russell Wilson’s arrival from N.C. State.

That’s at least five quarterbacks with a shot to be No. 1.

“I know this,” Andersen said, “the best one we evaluate will play.”

Which for Phillips—who’s overcome unimaginable pain and frustration already—means there’s yet another mountain to climb.

“I didn’t come back from all these injuries to sit on the bench,” he said.

Phillips believes time is on his side, and not just because of the sixth year granted by the NCAA. He missed spring practices in 2012. He wasn’t fully healthy during fall camp. Even while he was starting those late-season games, he didn’t have the strength in his right leg to drive through many throws.

Doctors have told him a full recovery from an ACL tear often takes about a year and a half. Phillips, whose third injury happened in April of 2011, is feeling stronger all the time now. By the time spring ball begins, he expects to at last be back at full capacity.

“I’m going to be able to throw the ball so much better,” he said.

If true, that means Andersen and Ludwig will see a different player than the one they’ve watched on tape. Of course, a young guy like Stave or Houston could be much-improved, too.

“It’s going to be a very competitive spring,” Ludwig said. “We’re looking to create some separation and identify a guy, and build on it from there.”

Ludwig uses the term “repetitive accuracy” when describing what he looks for in a quarterback. It’s meaning isn’t difficult to decode, but just in case you could use the help: Wisconsin’s starter is going to be someone who proves throughout the offseason that he can put the ball in the right spot, throw after throw. Phillips did indeed struggle with that in 2012.

If we know anything about him, though, it’s that he’ll work on it. It’s who he is.